Weekly S&P500 ChartStorm - 19 April 2026
This week: technical check, the Q1 clean-out (hedge funds, retail, tech investors, speculators, global equity technicals), cash allocations, Bitcoin & Software...
Welcome to the latest Weekly S&P500 #ChartStorm!
Learnings and conclusions from this week’s charts:
The S&P500 has bounced back & onto new all-time highs.
Q1 saw a major cleanout in positioning across participants.
Two major weak spots (Bitcoin & Software) are looking better.
Global equity technicals look bullish following “healthy correction”.
Retail allocations to cash remain around the bottom end of the range.
Overall, following what now looks to be a “healthy correction” + a big Q1 clean out in positioning + positive technical developments — it looks like the path of least resistance is higher from here.
1. Mission Accomplished: that looks like a decisive victory.
One thing I think that stands out through this whole episode is how despite consensus bullish sentiment, crowded positioning, and stretched valuations around the turn of the year —we barely scratched -10% down on the S&P 500. I think that ultimately reflects a strong underlying trend and positive macro-fundamentals (for now at least).
And now that we’ve got the rebound and clean breakout from oversold washed out conditions, it looks like this reset has been of the “healthy correction” variety (so we probably drift higher from here).
The next few charts document the reset…
Source: MarketCharts.com Charting Tools
2. The Q1 Clean Out — Hedge Funds (1): hedge funds trimmed longs and added to shorts, sending the longs vs shorts ratio down to surpass the 2025 tariff tantrum lows.
